Bolt Weapons
From Lexicanum
The Bolt Weapon is the characteristic weapon of the Space Marines and Sisters of Battle; they are also used in more limited numbers throughout the Imperium's armed forces. Bolt weapons are purposefully unsubtle weapons, with very obvious and bloody effects.
Contents |
Operation
Bolt Weapons are smoothbore, semi and fully-automatic guns that fire a two stage projectile known as bolts. The bolt is more a miniature explosive rocket than a conventional bullet.
As the bolt round is fired and leaves the barrel, the bolt's tiny rocket is ignited, which carries the warhead forward and imparts a stabilising spin. In a conventional firearm, the projectile begins to lose velocity as soon as it leaves the barrel. A bolt, however, continues to accelerate throughout its trajectory due to the additional thrust.
The standard bolt weapon is the bolter (or "boltgun") and any reference to a bolter will be the same or similar for other Bolt Weapons.
The bolter has two advantages over a conventional firearm. Firstly, the amount of propellant required for the first stage is relatively small. This means that with the standard .75 calibre (about 20mm), the recoil is negligible when compared to a conventional projectile weapon of equivalent calibre. Secondly, recoil is further reduced by the smoothbore design of the bolter. Because spin is imparted by the rocket engine after the bolt exits the barrel, there is no need for rifling. The counter to this, however, comes from the fact that bolts are less powerful at closer ranges, as they need time to accelerate to top speed.
The bolter is complex to produce and requires dedicated maintenance, which prevents it being issued more widely throughout the Imperial Guard. It is far more susceptible to corrosion and mishandling than the basic Lasgun issued to Guardsmen. Bolters also require far more logistic organisation than the standard lasgun - the lasgun is easily rechargeable whereas the bolter requires constant resupply.
The standard ammunition employed by the Space Marines is a mass reactive warhead, which has earned the bolter its reputation as a terror weapon. A millisecond fuse detonates the warhead after it has penetrated the target, however at extremely close range the bolts are known to pass through the target, only putting a hole in the target the size of the round and exploding behind it. Against soft tissue the effect is particularly gruesome, and many enemies of the Emperor quickly capitulate after seeing the results of bolter fire on their comrades. It is possible that the creation of this projectile was motivated by the ancient first encounters with the alien Orks, whose massive frames and tendency to ignore pain render solid projectiles ineffective. This standard bolt is also effective against light armoured vehicles.
Types of Bolt Weapon
There are several Bolt Weapons making up a fearsome arsenal, some of these include:
Boltgun/Bolter
Main article: Boltgun
Boltguns are the standard armament of a Space Marine. They are capable of firing a variety of bolts with different warheads.
Storm Bolter
Main article: Storm Bolter
Storm Bolters are an evolution of the Combi-Bolter used before the Horus Heresy. The Storm Bolter is essentially a dual chambered, linked bolter. Its massive rate of fire makes it a devastating weapon at close quarters. It is ideally suited for assault missions and is designed to be incorporated with Terminator Armour.
- However, they are standard issue for Space Marine Terminators, and are often a tank's pintle-mounted weapon. They are also used by the Grey Knights as a gauntlet-mounted weapon with its feed sourced from the back of their armour or from a magazine on the side of the gauntlet (as seen in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade). Like boltguns, Imperial Guard veterans and officers rarely carry a storm bolter. The Sisters of Battle will sometimes designate a member of a squad to carry a storm bolter as a special weapon.
- Due to high munitions consumption, and the lack of manual dexterity in Tactical Dreadnought Armor, most Storm Bolters are fed from a large box magazine, carrying approximately 60-150 rounds depending on the size and style. When the weapon is used without Tactical Dreadnought Armour, it usually has a more conventional magazine containing sixty rounds, which, given the double barrels and firing mechanism, gives you thirty shots. These rounds are identical to those fired from bolt pistols and boltguns.
- Before the Storm Bolter was created by the Tech Priests, Terminators were often equipped with special combi-weapons which were essentially two boltguns fused together. These "combi-bolters" were capable of a higher rate of fire than the Storm Bolter when at short range, but without a synchronized firing mount, were less effective at longer range. Combi-bolters have been replaced by Storm Bolters in Imperial armies, but are still frequently used by Chaos Space Marines.
Bolt Pistol
Main article: Bolt Pistol
Bolt Pistols are a smaller version of the Bolter and are effective weapons in close combat, and are often used by Assault Marine squads. It is also the standard Astartes sidearm.
Heavy Bolter
Main article: Heavy Bolter
Heavy Bolters are a larger calibre Bolter with sustained fire capabilities. It is used by Imperial forces as a squad support weapon, as well as close anti-infantry defense for tanks and other armoured vehicles.
- The heavy bolter is a support weapon. Unlike other bolter weapons, it uses a much larger caliber round (possibly 1.0 caliber bolt rounds) and is in common use by all but the Imperium's most primitive martial forces. It has a high rate of fire, long range, is inexpensive to manufacture, and tolerant of mistreatment by inexperienced users. It is used on tanks and a variety of vehicles as an anti-personnel weapon as well as on fixed defences.
- Heavy bolters operate differently than other bolt weapons. Instead of a firing pin physically striking the bolt shell to activate the projectile, a specific electronic pulse is applied in the firing chamber. Rounds are fed into the firing chamber by an electric motor, rather than exhaust gases cycling the action as in other bolt weapons. Exhaust gases are used to generate the power needs of the weapon; the initial power, and first round chambered by working a slide on the weapons side. These features enable the heavy bolter to maintain rates of fire that would cripple a standard bolter or bolt pistol.
- Due to its size and weight, Imperial Guard infantry operate using a two man team, firing it from a tripod mount. A single Space Marine, being physically much larger and stronger, can carry both the heavy bolter and its ammunition alone, and fire it from a braced standing position, even with little aid from their power armor (Space Marine Scouts without power armor can fire heavy bolters in this manner). The Sisters of Battle, with the assistance of power armor-augmented strength, are also capable of carrying the heavy bolter and ammunition alone. When used in this manner by heavy infantry, the weapon itself is carried with both hands and fired from the hip, with the ammunition belt-fed from a backpack. It is also referred to as the "Back Breaker" or the "Bruiser" particularly amongst Underhive inhabitants.
Vulcan Mega-Bolter
Main article: Vulcan Mega-Bolter
Vulcan Mega-Bolters are a Titan mounted weapon capable of massive firepower at huge rates of fire, due to their gatling gun design.
Hurricane Pattern Bolters
Main article: Hurricane Pattern Bolters
Hurricane Pattern Bolters are in actual fact six bolters strapped together, giving tremendous firepower. This is only ever used on the Land Raider Crusader.
Bolt Ammunition
- The Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus have developed many types of bolter ammunition over the millennia. The most common variants are:
- Standard Bolts comprise the following components: Outer casing, propellant base, main charge, mass reactive detonator cap, depleted deuterium core, diamantine tip. The standard bolter shell is standardised at .75 calibre, whereas heavy bolter rounds are larger, at 1.00 Cal. A replica .75 cal bolt shell can be bought from the Black Library (Games-Workshops main fiction and non-miniature based outlet).
- Hellfire Rounds have devastating results on organic matter, as the rounds are developed to combat Tyranids. The core and tip are replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid with thousands of needles that fire into target upon the shattering of the vial, pumping the acid into the target.
- Stalker Silenced Shells are rounds with low sound signatures, meant for covert fighting and used in conjunction with an M40 targeting system and an extended barrel and stock on a bolter to produce a sniping weapon system. A solidified mercury slug replaces the mass-reactive warhead for lethality at sub-sonic projectile speed. A gas cartridge also replaces both the propellant base and main charge for silent firing.
- Inferno Bolts are designed to immolate their targets and destroy them with superheated chemical fire. The deuterium core is replaced with an oxy-phosphorus gel, known as Promethium. It should be noted that the Chaos Space Marine Thousand Sons have their own similarly-named but unrelated type of inferno bolts, which are actually psychically-bound slugs that release arcane energies; these slugs explode with sorcerous energies upon impact.
- Odysseus Bolts are bolts which are psychically impregnated. Fired into large objects, the distinctive signature of the bolt can then be tracked through the Warp by an Astropath.
- Metal Storm Frag Shells are best against multiple lightly-armoured targets. They detonate before impact and spray shrapnel, shredding their victims. A proximity detonator replaces the mass-reactive cap, and the diamantine tip and deuterium core are replaced with an increased charge and fragmentation casing. They are similar to flak rounds and are used against clusters of enemies.
- Kraken Pattern Penetrator Rounds are powerful armour-piercing rounds. The deuterium core is replaced by a solid adamantine core and uses a heavier main charge. Upon impact, the outer casing peels away and the high velocity adamantium needle accelerates into the victim, where the larger detonator propels shards of super hardened metal further into the wound. These are effective against heavily-armoured infantry.
- Psycannon Bolts are used by the Inquisition, primarily the Ordo Malleus and Grey Knights. They are very similar in nature to the rounds fired by their namesake, the Psycannon, and are similarly used against psychic and daemonic targets. Of all the rounds these are the most expensive, as each and every bolt is inscribed with runes on a microscopic level. Other sources say that they contain an anti-psychic substance that still others claim is a byproduct of the Emperor's Golden Throne. The psychic nature of these rounds are not only effective at destroying daemonic targets but also highly efficient at piercing the powerful barriers created by forcefield generators (such as the Tau Shield Generator and the Imperium's own Iron Halo and Storm Shield).
 |
1 : Propellant Base |  |
1 : In this bolt, |
 |
1 : In this bolt, |  |
1: The main charge is |
 |
1 : Mini-gyrostabilizer |  |
1 : Gas Cartridge |
